What To Do Now?
by StarPurpleandBlue
Summary: "I screwed up. Besides the fact that I can lose the girl I love, I may not be able to fix it. All because of my fear of perhaps going back to how I was before. I'm really stupid." After hearing a conversation he shouldn't, Satoshi begins to question his past actions. After many doubts and an accident, will he be able to reach a decision on what to do? SatoMa and slight HoutaEru


_**A/N:**_ Hello to everyone who is reading this! I got the idea for this fic last year at school and since then I slowly started writing in a paper what I wanted to do with it. It took me a looong time to finally post it because it wasn't my priority, as I have my own story to write too, but I actually really liked the idea, so I kept writing till I finished, at least, the first chapter!

This is my first fanfic about Hyouka, so I'm really sorry if some of the characters seem too OOC, as I'm not sure I captured their way of acting completely from the anime (especially since now it's been a while since I last watched the episodes, but anyway).

Now, I wrote this story based on what I've seen on the anime (specifically in episode 21), so I know absolutely nothing of what happened in the light novel! Oh, and so you all won't get lost with the timeline in this story, this is basically happening some time after the anime ended, more or less in early September, with their Cultural Festival only occurring in late October.

Well, I guess that's all I needed to tell you. If you can, please leave a review here! It'll make me extremely happy and eager to finish the next chapter sooner ;) So without further ado, I present you the first chapter of "_What to do now?_"! Hope you like it :)

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own any of the characters from Hyouka; I only own the idea for this fic!

* * *

'_Come on, just a little more.'_ Satoshi thought while staring at the clock on the wall. To him it seemed like the minutes were passing slower than they should, all while the math teacher continued to explain something that had been written on the blackboard before. Watching the seconds hand move, he began to count_. 'Just a little more till this class finishes, just a little more...'_

With exact precision, a noise rang from outside the classroom at the same time both the minutes and seconds hands pointed at the clock number 12. '_Yes!'_

"Well that's all for today class. We will continue tomorrow from where we left off," said the teacher before he grabbed his belongings and left the room. Around him, everyone began to put their books away and get their food while talking with someone, causing the classroom to quickly become filled with noise.

Stretching with a big smile on his face, Satoshi grabbed his backpack and pulled out from inside his _bentō_. "Ahh, it's finally lunch time! I was so hungry!" He said relieved. Putting his lunchbox on the desk, his smile turned softer; he hadn't eaten one of these for a long time. '_But with my mother having to get up earlier to go work in the shop it's not surprising that she doesn't have much time to cook in the morning.'_

"Lunch made at home, huh?" One of his friends from the class said while sitting in the now vacant seat in front of him.

"Yeah," Satoshi nodded with a smile. "It's a nice change from the one I always buy."

"You're gonna eat here, then?" The boy asked while he opened a package of cookies and offered one to Satoshi.

"No, today I think I'll annoy Houtarou a bit," The orange-eyed boy said in a playful tone after refusing the biscuit.

"All right then. See you later," the other replied before Satoshi stood up with his lunchbox in his hands and said goodbye too. Turning quickly to the rear door of the room, the brown-haired boy couldn't wait to sit back in his friend's classroom and finally start eating his lunch, he remembered very well how the delicious smell of food had infested his home in the morning while he was preparing his material for school.

Satoshi had just started to slide open the door when a familiar voice reached his ear and made him momentarily stop.

"Oh, stop. It's not like this, Aiko-chan!"

'_Isn't this… Mayaka?'_ Satoshi thought a little surprised at the somewhat nervous tone in his friend's voice. '_No, I better to let it go. It's rude to eavesdrop on someone else's conversation. If she seems strange later when we meet in the clubroom I'll ask her what happened'._ He thought shaking his head. He was ready to continue opening the door when the rest of the conversation caught his attention.

"Come on, don't try to deny that he likes you, Ibara-chan," A voice, probably Aiko's, replied in teasingly tone. "I saw the way he was looking at you! He surely feels something for you."

'_What are they talking about?' _All the thoughts about his lunch or ending up being rude were immediately forgotten. Leaning a bit closer to the door and hoping that nobody in his classroom would question what he was doing, Satoshi looked through the small opening of the door and spotted Mayaka leaning against the windows directly across the classroom next to his with two girls around her.

"It's just in a friendship way," said Mayaka pouting. "What, can't I have a friend that is a boy?"

"You know that's not what I meant," the girl on the left replied while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Wait a minute you two," The other brunette girl said, quickly stopping the discussion that was about to form. "You lost me in the middle of the conversation. Who likes Mayaka-san?" She asked saying exactly what Satoshi, who had been caught by surprise by the subject of their conversation, was wondering. She turned to Aiko, who smiled and, ignoring Mayaka's exclamation of _"he doesn't like me!"_, said:

"None other than Yamada-san!"

"Who?" Was the confused response of the other girl.

"Kei Yamada-san! From class 2-C," Aiko answered excitedly.

"Ohh! _Him_?!" The brunette exclaimed surprised.

Mayaka grunted frustrated while she watched both girls. "Not you too, Rika-chan."

"Him, Rika-chan," Aiko said with a smile. "You should have seen him while they were talking! He is totally falling for her!"

"Seriously, Mayaka-san?" Rika questioned looking at the pink-eyed girl.

"No!" Mayaka exclaimed ignoring the startled looks the other passing through the corridor sent in their direction. At this point, the other two girls had moved and formed somehow a barrier in front of her, blocking Satoshi's view of Mayaka's faces.

"Alright, alright. Deny it all you want, but I know what I saw!"Aiko said stubbornly.

"But what about you, Mayaka-san?" Rika said. "What do you feel for him?"

Satoshi quickly closed the door of the classroom, making, immediately, the voices he was hearing before muffled and unintelligible. With his heart beating fast, he went to the door on the other side of the room, this time in a much slower pace. He seriously didn't need to hear the rest of the conversation; didn't need to hear Mayaka's answer. '_Or maybe I'm simply too afraid to hear it.'_ He thought bitterly while he finally came out of his classroom and began to walk down the corridor in the opposite direction of where Mayaka and her friends were.

"But I think I deserved it, didn't I?" The orange-eyed boy wondered slightly before he stopped walking and leaned against the corridor wall, vaguely watching other students pass in front of him talking. He needed a moment to organize the mess of thoughts in his head and avoid having an emotional breakdown. It was amazing what a simple conversation had done with him. Suddenly his day had gone downhill.

Sighing again, Satoshi closed his eyes and the image of the three girls chatting came to his mind. '_So there's a guy who seems to like Mayaka, huh? No wonder, she is truly amazing. Sooner or later other people were going to figure it out.'_ He left a sad little smile make its way into his face. '_Though I have no right to complain. Not after everything I've made her pass through. Especially on the last Valentine's Day..._' He thought while feeling a strange sensation in his chest.

"Well, now it's not the time to be thinking about that," he muttered to himself before calming all the emotions that were bubbling inside him and plasticized a smile on his face. "I still really want to taste my lunch!"

And with that the boy with orange eyes calmly continued in his way through the rest of the corridor before entering his friend's classroom, all this while he pretended to have nothing in his mind bothering him.

"Yo, Houtarou!" He said nodding toward the dark-haired boy in the back of the class. Said boy turned his head toward him when he heard his name being called. Recognizing the owner of the voice, he raised a hand in a silent greeting while he finished chewing what was probably once a part of the sandwich in his hands.

Satoshi quickly headed for the vacant seat in front of him while humming a song in a somewhat forced gaiety. '_Maybe I can continue my day normally as if nothing happened, right? If I can forget what I heard then maybe none of those unwanted emotions will re-appear again.'_

With that idea firmly in his head, he quickly sat and turned back, promptly supporting his _bentō_ at his friend's table and finally opening it. Picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks, he finally managed to taste it.

"This is really good!" He exclaimed with a big smile before quickly continuing to eat.

"Food made at home?" Houtarou asked with a raised eyebrow before taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Yep!" The orange-eyed boy nodded. "My aunt cooked this to me today..."

"Your aunt?"

"My father was called to attend a conference abroad and my mother had to go along. With my brother living near his college and not being able to come here, my aunt offered to take care of me," Satoshi said, answering Houtarou's questions left in the air.

The dark-haired boy nodded before returning to his usual silence while eating. Mentally, Satoshi sighed with relief; perhaps Houtarou would leave this matter aside. With all those feelings resurging, even the mention of his parents had brought a sense of discomfort to him, quickly reminding him of the root of his problem (although it wasn't like he could blame them completely for everything...). With this, what Satoshi most wanted at that moment was getting distracted. He just hoped Houtarou wouldn't-

"Did something happen?" The voice of his friend cut his line of reasoning.

With his elbow on the table and his head resting on his hand, Houtarou looked him with an expression that those who didn't know him well would say was boredom. As Satoshi had known the dark-haired boy for years, it was easy to see the slight concern present in the eyes of his friend. '_Oh, damn.'_ He mentally sighed when he realized that his friend's observational skills hadn't been deceived by him. '_And I really thought that I was doing a good job at keeping a cheerful expression...'_

"There's nothing wrong, Houtarou." He answered with his usual happy smile. Feeling himself under the analyst look of the dark-haired boy, he added. "Really, it's okay. There is nothing to worry about."

He saw the doubtful look that Houtarou was sending him, but before he could say something else the green-eyed boy shrugged and muttered "If you say so", quickly returning to eat his sandwich. Grateful for not being under the pressure of answering anything anymore, Satoshi started a conversation about the first trivial thing that came to his mind.

_Yes... There's nothing... To worry about..._ He repeated again in his head.


End file.
